This invention relates to improvements in a group supervision apparatus and a group supervision method for an elevator system with a learning function.
As group supervision apparatuses each controlling a plurality of cages using microcomputers, have recently experienced widespread use. It has therefore become possible to readily store past, data such as of the motions of the cages and the occurrences of hall calls over a predetermined time period.
An apparatus wherein a statistics device is provided in an elevator system so as to collect the statistics of the occurrences of passengers at respective floors in respective time zones and to group-supervise cages on the basis of the statistical results collected, is proposed in, for example, the official gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 22274/1983. In addition, a group supervision apparatus wherein a statistical unit to be handled is classified into three types; a workday, a holiday and a half-holiday, is proposed in the official gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 48875/1985.
A prior-art example wherein the statistical unit to-be-handled is classified, is shown in FIG. 8. Referring to the figure, the example includes hall buttons 21, workday traffic volume measurement means 22, holiday traffic volume measurement means 23, a timepiece 24, half-holiday traffic volume estimation means 25, cage assignment means 26, a drive control device 27 and a motor 28.
The traffic volume during the workday and during the holiday are measured from the outputs of the individual hall buttons 21. On the basis of these traffic volumes and the output of the timepiece 24, the half-holiday traffic volume estimation means 25 takes the statistics of traffic volumes in individual time zones, whereupon it estimates the traffic volume during the forenoon of the half-holiday by the use of the statistical results of the workday and the traffic volume during the afternoon by the use of the statistical results of the holiday. According to the estimated results, the case assignment means 26 controls the assignment of cages and drives the hoisting motor 28 through the drive control device 27 so as to operate the cages.
With this apparatus, an elevator system is group-supervised on the workday and the holiday by the use of the statistics of the traffic volumes of the elevator system collected as to the respective days and on the half-holiday and by the use of the statistics estimated from the measured results of both the workday and the holiday, whereby saving in the storage capacity of a computer is permitted.
However, traffic situations inside buildings differ greatly, depending upon the uses of the interiors of the buildings and upon the day of the week. In some ordinary office buildings, the traffic situations can be broadly classified into the three types of the workday (any day from Monday to Friday), the holiday (Sunday and festival days) and the half-holiday (Saturday). Even on the workdays, however, the traffic can be said to differ depending upon the days of the week, for example, a morning meeting is held on Monday, so the traffic concentrates on a certain floor at about 8:30 a.m., or there is no overtime work on Friday, so the peak of the office-leaving hour corresponding to concentrated traffic appears at a time earlier than on the other workdays. Besides, in a hotel which has a wedding hall, many marriage ceremonies are performed on a lucky day, in which case the traffic differs from that on any other day. Thus, it is understood that the traffic situation inside the building differs depending upon the days of the week and upon whether the day is thought lucky or unlucky. It is unfavorable, however, to separately collect statistics even on days whose traffic volumes are not very different from those on the other days, for the reason that a large storage capacity is required for the computer. Nevertheless, when the traffic situation is roughly classified into the workday, holiday and half-holiday types, the precision of the statistical results becomes low.